I work Friday through Monday and I’m off Tues through Thursday. So, I was driving through the neighbourhood the other day while a crew from the landscaping company was cleaning up after a heavy rain. It was the middle of the morning, during a weekday, and as I drove by a guy on a bicycle drove by them at the same time, going in the opposite direction.

That made me think about the differences between the biker, the crew and myself. Chances are, the guy on the bike works oddball shifts like me. One would hope anyway. Here he is enjoying some leisure time during a work week morning, when most would be at work. I wondered if any on the crew resented him on his bike.

That led me to think about the differences between the ways people look at others. Generally speaking, I think it is safe to say that most people see common labourers as a group that belongs to the lower status groups. Even labourers themselves do, because that is the way society has conditioned everyone. The guy that collects the trash, or the one that pours the concrete at a construction site, these are the people not worth our time, or a second glance on the street. In other words, this would seem to be the prevailing sentiment in society in general. I could be wrong, maybe it’s my own outlook, which I project on society as whole as a justification to myself for feeling that way.

I will go with the first statement though, and present another concept. Two people, one that has no problem performing any kind of manual labor, and is quite capable to do so. Another, one who avoids work at all costs, who much prefers mental labor. Taken individually - or when people are considered individually by others - another would generally hold the labourer in higher esteem if this were the only quality judged and compared between the two.

I think I’m saying that right. To me it is a paradox, because a labourer considered as part of a group is held in low regard, while considered individually, or compared with someone that can’t, won’t, or avoids physical labor, such a person is held in higher regard.

The dog wants to play, I have to continue this later cause he won't leave me alone....